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DaiFrank wrote:

silurix wrote:

keithbob wrote:

silurix wrote:
The Dragons don't have many cards to play. Their resources don't allow any quick fix options. It will take time , shrewd management and the continued backing of their supporters to make the sort of progress we'd like to see. Although such progress is possible , it won't be quick and it won't be smooth.
If they rise one place up the table each year , that'll do me fine.

so one place up the table each year,sorry silurix i may be too old or even gone in ten years before i see us compete with the best.not good enough for me and im sure many others who struggle to make the effort year after year to turn up when the team doesnt!

I can see where you're coming from Keith and I agree its not much fun watching a side struggling to improve. But what are the options? There's no magic wand available. As long as the players and coaches show spirit and commitment to the cause then , for me, they are worth supporting though admittedly there are limits to anyone's patience. I'm assuming the slump since the new year was just a blip. If they finish 9th this year and improve by one place a year then in 4 years time they'll be challenging for the playoffs - that doesn't sound too bad to me.

I'd like some of those 'happy pills' you take! As Frank Zappa once said 'The Torture Never Stops'... perhaps you enjoy the pain of the long suffering NGDs? It's been a disaster from the start, every season is falsely going to be better in the fantasy world of the eternal optimist, but it never does. Promises by influential people are routinely broken. Tony Brown's plea to the fans - which convinced me by the way - 'stay with us, the future is going to be brighter' - was a sham. Currently it has not happened.

The problem of just putting up with it is that it allows Hazell et. al to continue to 'manage' things on the cheap. They bring in Lyn 'Gwent Dragons' Jones in the hope that, not totally unlike Moyes, he can bring out the best of a mediocre team. But the problem is that RP is rotten mostly at the top. CEO's come and go because of 'tight fiscal restraints'. Here's a question: Why doesn't Hazell et al invite other business people to invest? After all, the economic rewards of playing in Europe, more so now, are attractive. Of course there are also the rewards of status for the lowly NGDs, who are at the lower end of European Rugby. The 'sleeping giant' that Gough spoke of recently, was once spoken of by Neil Jenkins prior to Brown's brief intervention. It briefly woke up only to fall back into a deep coma. This is not the players fault. It's management. Granted the WRU has not helped the situation and it has been a long time coming that the Clubs finally stood up to them. Collectively they've been cowards. They've seen the light because of the inevitable decline of Welsh Club rugby.

I think you have this wrong. You talk about business investing in the Dragons. I would like to know of a business that has profited from putting money into regional rugby in Wales. Like most backers in top sport, they are throwing money into a deep pit or into over-inflated player salaries. The only thing the business people are likely to get out of it is a bit of kudos."

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Not much has changed for the Dragons this season in terms of their placing in the RaboDirect Pro12; they sit 10th and are destined to finish as the bottom Welsh region.

But plenty is changing off the field; Jones has already signed seven players for 2014/15 and a raft of squad members are entering the final few weeks of their time at Rodney Parade.

The rebuilding job has no doubt played a part in form slipping since the turn of the year – they have taken just 7 points from a possible 45 – but Jones believes better times are around the corner.

"I was absolutely delighted with the attitude and the effort that the players put in against the Ospreys," said the director of rugby, who took over the reins last June.

"I thought that Lewis Evans was outstanding as a captain and as a player – we need more like him doing the Dragons shirt proud.

"We are slowly but surely getting the right people in the room and it's only when we get everyone singing from the same sheet that we will succeed.

"I said in the build-up to the Ospreys game that we are probably seven years behind the Ospreys and the challenge is to close that gap as quickly as we can. Sunday was an indication that we are doing it the right way."

Nonetheless it was another pointless encounter for the Dragons and finishing above the in-form Cardiff Blues, who are six clear thanks to a hat-trick of wins, is now highly unlikely.

Jones said: "We are bottom of the log, there's only one way for us to go and that's up. There's no shortcut to where we want to go, it'll just take bloodymindedness to stick at it and keep building.

"There are things in place for next season but now we have the challenge to beat the Scarlets and beat Treviso."

One victory could well be enough for the Dragons to leapfrog Edinburgh and Connacht into eighth in the table.

The side from the Scottish capital, who are four points ahead, have a tricky run-in against three title hopefuls – Glasgow, Munster and Leinster.

The Galway-based province, who are three points ahead, host Cardiff Blues and end against the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium.